Monday, June 30, 2014

Even more troops into Iraq

Monday, Monday. Bad news day. For example, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports:The United States has deployed 300 more troops to Baghdad in the last
two days, with some of them assigned to secure Baghdad’s international
airport, the Obama administration announced Monday.One senior
U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the subject, told McClatchy that the troops were moved to
Baghdad after American officials determined that Islamist fighters had
consolidated their grip on the western outskirts of the capital in
recent days. The movement “convinced us this would be prudent,” the
official said.

Monday, June 30, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, Parliament is
supposed to meet Tuesday and determine the next government, a number of
rivals for the post of prime minister appear to be arising, AFP serves
up a parlor game, Rod Nordland does a report on Twitter that leads to
some criticism, Katie Couric interviews War Criminal Tony Blair, Senator
Patty Murray notes US President Barack Obama's nominee for VA
Secretary, and much more.

SCOTUS Decides: Corporations Have Religious Liberty; Women Do Not In Choosing Birth Control

WASHINGTON
-- In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court sided with Hobby Lobby, Inc. and
Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. today in a major blow to reproductive
rights for women across the nation.

“Today’s
decision not only deprives women of comprehensive healthcare, but it
sets a terrifying standard in affirming the “personhood” of
corporations. In siding with Hobby Lobby, the Supreme
Court yet again affirms the personhood of corporations, giving
closely-held (i.e. limited number of stockholders) corporations
so-called religious liberty and taking religious freedom away from their
employees at the expense of women’s health,” said Feminist Majority
Foundation President Eleanor Smeal. “This sets a dangerous precedent for
the future of religious liberty and women’s rights.”

A
majority of Americans agree that women should have access to affordable
birth control and support full coverage of birth control as a
preventive service. “The Supreme Court ignored, not only public opinion,
but individual rights of women to religious freedom,” Smeal continued.

Hobby
Lobby, a for-profit national craft store chain, and Conestoga Wood, a
wood cabinet manufacturer, challenged the benefit and sought to give
religious freedom to corporations rather than give women the right to
truly affordable and comprehensive health care. The Supreme Court case
is the first for-profit challenge to the law to make it to the highest
court.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

● At least 14% of all women using a contraceptive are doing so to treat painful conditions such as endometriosis, ovarian cysts, severe cramps.

● Studies have shown that the pill reduces the incidence of ovarian and endometrial cancers.

● As many as 88% of American women who have ever had sexual intercourse have used some form of contraception.

The
Feminist Majority Foundation has worked diligently for affordable
contraceptive access for all women. This decision is a blow to women who
work for corporations who claim to have religious views that trump the
religious views of their employees. The Affordable Care Act still
provides for the vast majority of women who have insurance coverage
birth control access without co-pays or deductibles.

Moving to Iraq, Kitabat observes
Nouri al-Maliki's fate is to be determined tomorrow when Parliament
holds their first session. Thug Nouri is completing his second term as
prime minister and wants a third term. His second term has been
characterized with bullying, targeting, arresting political rivals,
killing their relatives, attacking protesters, killing protesters,
refusing to honor promises -- including signed legal contracts, and much
more. So some might say it is Iraq's fate that could be determined
tomorrow.

Iraq Times reports
on rumors that State of Law has decided to abandon pushing Nouri for a
third term and that they've come up with a new nominee for prime
minister (supposedly Tareq Najm). National Iraqi News Agency, citing Ahrar bloc MP Hakim al-Zamili, noted the Iraqi National Alliance is supposed to select their nominee for prime minister at a bloc meeting tonight. Iraq Times maintains
the fight for the post of prime minister will be mainly between Adel
Abdul-Mahdi and Tareq Najm with Ahmed Chalabi and Faleh al-Fayad dark
horses in the race. NINA quotes
Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman declaring "the decision of changing the
government and its approach and its faces begins from the National
Alliance." Tareq Najm would be a new name for the international
community. Adel Abdul-Mahdi is not a new face. Following the December
2005 parliamentary elections, he was named one of Iraq's two vice
presidents -- he was the Shi'ite Vice President, Tareq al-Hashemi was
the Sunni. Both served their term until 2010. In 2010, both were named
to a second term. al-Hashemi left the country when Nouri began
targeting him. Adel Abdul-Mahdi left the government nearly six months
before al-Hashemi left the country. At the start of 2011, a worried
Nouri lied to get protesters off the streets of Iraq. He insisted, if
given 100 days, he'd end corruption in Iraq. At the end of 100 days, he
failed to keep his promise (as always). Adel Abdul-Mahdi resigned over
the government's inability to address corruption. He remains a
powerful Iraqi politician (one with a world profile -- and Big Oil loves
him). He is a member of Ammar al-Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council of
Iraq -- one the major Shi'ite political parties.

Hamish MacDonald (ABC News) reports, "Shaping up as the political king-maker in the new parliament is the
leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, Ammar al-Hakim. In an
interview with ABC News he said Maliki 'has two obstacles. He must be
accepted by both the national Shia Alliance, and by the other
minorities'." Over the weekend, Arab Times noted this on the political situation:In
a stunning political intervention on Friday that could mean the demise
of Maliki’s eight-year tenure, powerful Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah
Ali Sistani urged political blocs to agree on the next premier,
parliament speaker and president before a newly elected legislature
meets in Baghdad on Tuesday. Saudi King Abdullah pledged in talks with
US Secretary of State John Kerry to use his influence to encourage Sunni
Muslims to join a new, more inclusive Iraqi government to better combat
Islamist insurgents, a senior US official said on Saturday. Abdullah’s
assurance marked a significant shift from Riyadh’s unwillingness to
support a new government unless Maliki, a Shi’ite, steps aside, and
reflected growing disquiet about the regional repercussions of ISIL’s
rise. “The next 72 hours are very important to come up with an agreement
... to push the political process forward,” said a lawmaker and former
government official from the National Alliance, which groups all Shi’ite
Muslim parties. The lawmaker, who asked for anonymity due to political
sensitivities, said he anticipated internal meetings by various parties
and a broader session of the National Alliance including Maliki’s State
of Law list to be held through the weekend. Some Sunni Muslim parties
were to convene later on Saturday. Iraqi Sunnis accuse Maliki of
freezing them out of any power and repressing their community, goading
armed tribes to support the insurgency led by the fundamentalist group
ISIL. The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region has also said
Maliki should bow out. Sistani’s entry into the fray will make it hard
for Maliki to stay on as caretaker leader as he has since a
parliamentary election in April.

And on the political merry go round, Hamish MacDonald (ABC News) reportsPerhaps the single most significant public development in this process
so far is the meeting of the Shia Alliance on Saturday night, after
which the coalition of parties declared itself the biggest single voting
bloc in the parliament. This issues a direct challenge to Maliki's
State of Law party, which holds 92 seats and is the single largest party
in parliament.The combination of seats belonging to the Shia
Alliance may give them a mandate to form the new government and have the
power to determine key positions, including the prime minister.

Are we forgetting the 'judicial' decision Nouri pulled out of his ass in 2010?The one he put in his pocket and failed to inform anyone of ahead of the
election. It was his worst case scenario card. If he didn't win the
most seats, he had that decision.And he used it because he lost in 2010.The judicial decision said it wasn't about the biggest grouping before
the election, it was about the biggest grouping after the election.

I wrote that Saturday in response to Shashank Bengali (Los Angeles Times) making the ridiculous claim
that seats won in the election by Nouri's State of Law gave Nouri first
crack because he got the most. The Constitution didn't say that. And
the Court verdict became the final word. Once accepted, it's precedent.
It's custom. That's why, if you didn't like it, you needed to object
in real time (which we did here). But four years later? The verdict
stands.

And, yes, it is damaging to print claims like Bengali did -- print them
as fact. You can call it lying or you can call it whoring. I don't
care. But Bengali's 'reporting' was damaging. And I think a strong
case can be made that Western reporters in May aided the violence,
encouraged. Unwillingly? Absolutely. But when a desperate and
hopeless people are repeatedly told by western outlets that they are
stuck with Nouri for a third term, it's not a surprise that violence sky
rockets.

It can also impact ethics as well. Iraqi journalists have been very
brave and taken extreme risks to report truths. What message does it
send when they see western reporters willfully engage in fabricating and
distorting?

Rod Nordland writes for the New York Times. He offended some Iraqis over the weekend. This morning, I wrote, "Iraq Times and Kitabat
both note a story we'll touch on that in today's snapshot." They're
writing about Rod. They're among the many Iraqi outlets that see Rod as
news.

Where's the English language coverage?

Rod did a good report. Sadly, it was on Twitter and not for his news outlet.

My apologies to Iraqi journalists who are blameless, which I'm sure is most of them.

Precision should have been used and greater efforts at clarity because a
few dinars here and there is nothing compared to the damage western
reporters have done to Iraq. That's not a slap at Rod Nordland who's
done some good reporting -- and I would include the Tweets as good
reporting -- but it is noting that it's a lot easier to call out some
Iraqi reporters than it is some names with big western outlets.

AFP should be called out for this report. So should McClatchy which recommended it.
Supposedly, it's a look at the people who possibly might be the next
prime minister of Iraq. Let's note three paragraphs and I bet you can
figure out the problem.Here is a brief overview of the candidates seen as possible replacements for Maliki:

The former Iraqi vice president is a leading figure in the Citizen's
bloc, formerly known as the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, a political
party seen as close to Iran. The French-speaking economist has long been
touted as a potential prime minister. Maliki defeated his bid for the
post by just one vote in an internal ballot within a pan-Shiite
coalition that won December 2005 elections.

Maliki's predecessor as prime minister remains the head of the National
Alliance, the loose pan-Shiite coalition that includes the premier's
bloc and rival parties. He was ousted in favour of Maliki in 2006, when
Iraq was embroiled in brutal communal bloodletting, because he was seen
as too sectarian by minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Maliki's chief of staff maintains a low profile in the news but wields
considerable power behind the scenes and hails from the prime minister's
Dawa party, the oldest Shiite political party formed in opposition to
former dictator Saddam Hussein.

I'm sorry, is that a report or is it a parlor game?

A report should name the three people described in the last three paragraphs.

The first one is Adel Abdul-Mahdi whom we discussed earlier (Shi'ite
Vice President for one full term and a few months of a second term).
The next person is Ibrahim al-Jaafari. I have no idea who Nouri's
chief of staff is.

Nor should I need to. The 'report' should identify these people by name.

Again, it is a report or is it a parlor game?

I do read French so I went to Prashant Rao's Twitter feed and looked for a Tweet about this article. There is one

Katie Couric: Many people are looking at this situation and saying
basically: You reap what you sow. They are blaming you and President
Bush for starting this whole mess by invading Iraq back in 2003 even
though it was later revealed -- as you have said and noted -- the
country didn't have WMDs [Weapons of Mass Destruction]. And, in fact, I
was inundated, Mr. Blair, with comments on social media claiming you
are a War Criminal. What's your response to that?Tony Blair: These people pursue me everywhere and will carry on
saying this. And that's their point of view. They will say it here or
they will say it in the UK. I'll just point out two things that I think
are important. I don't say this to convince you that the decisions in
2003 were the right decisions but simply to convince you this is a
deeper problem than me calling people "appeasers" or they calling me a
War Criminal will allow. And let us be very clear about this. The
proximate cause of what just happened in Iraq -- these jihadist fighters
coming over the border from Syria. When we intervened in Iraq, we know
how difficult it was. Where we didn't intervene in Syria? We see how
these people rebuild themselves and and come into Iraq. When we went
into Libya, by the way, Libya is a country today that unfortunately, I'm
afraid, is exporting its instability and chaos right across the region.
So intervention is tough. Partial-intervention is tough -- as in
Libya. Non-intervention is tough -- as in Syria. So instead of going
back over the decisions of eleven years ago let's work out what we do
right now.

Tony Blair would especially like everyone to look away from 11 years ago
-- and not notice the long-suppressed findings of the Iraq Inquiry in
the UK.

Back to the interview with War Criminal Blair:Katie Couric: You called the political situation in Iraq "urgent."
But even some top Shi'ite officials have called for Maliki's ouster. Is
he no longer a viable leader? Should he step down?Tony Blair: Well he changes or he can't lead Iraq to a viable future,
that's clear. So I think he's prepared to make the change or he's got
to let others make the change. But what you cannot have is the situation
where this is seen as a Shi'ite Sunni fightKatie Couric: But do you still have faith in Maliki?Tony Blair: Look, I've been very critical over the sectarian nature
of the government over the last few years. I mean, I'm hesitant to call
for his removal but I-I know from conversations with people inside Iraq
that there is a huge desire to get a government that is genuinely
united. And if it had the endorsement of the Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, it would be -- It would be a government that could govern.
And then the fight becomes -- It would be immediately transformative by
the way because it would then become a fight against extremism and not a
fight against Sunni or Shi'ite.

And from earlier in the interview:Tony Blair: I think that what is -- what would be transformative of
the situation would be if the Iraqi government, the prime minister
either changes his ways or the government -- then the prime minister is
changed because part of the reason why ISIS has been able to move in
this way is not because the local Sunni population really wants this
vicious, jihadist group on their doorstep but because they're worried
that the politics of Iraq have been too sectarian.

While selecting a prime minister is important, should the system work on
Tuesday, the Parliament will also be selecting a Speaker of Parliament
and a President of Iraq. As the Kurds feel the post of President belongs
to them, the Sunnis feel the same with regards to Speaker of Parliament
and it's on the Sunni side where all the discussions are taking place. Alsumaria quotes
Kurdish MP Najeebeh Najib insisting that the President and Speaker have
been determined and that it's only the post of prime minister which
remains up for grabs. However, other press reports indicate there
remains a great deal of jockeying for the position of Speaker of
Parliament. All Iraq News notes
the Wataniyah bloc is nominating Salem al-Juburi for the Speaker's
post while Motahidoin is nomination Osama al-Nujaifi -- al-Nujaifi
served as Speaker in the last term which kicked off in November 2010. NINA notes the push for Salim al-Juburi for the post (and states a source declaring it is a done deal). Alsumaria reports
al-Nujaifi has met with Saleh al-Mutlaq to discuss various political
issues ahead of the session to be held Tuesday. Prashant Rao Tweeted:

The Obama administration said on Monday it has sent yet another
complement of US troops to safeguard the embassy, a measure intended to
ward off another Benghazi-style assault on American diplomats.It brings the number of US military personnel flowing into Iraq to 750, up from 100 barely two weeks ago.

Let's say something awful happens to embassy staff in Baghdad in the
next weeks or months. Had Barack started the needed conversation, the
most likely outcome would have been a plurality (if not majority) of
American adults would have said that the embassy should remain. By not
having the conversation, he allowed others the space to do so. Two
prominent Republican senators have been among those leading the
conversation. They started last week. Their warnings are now on
record, they were public warnings and they were televised. Should
something go wrong -- and this is the White House only just now figured
out -- Barack gets all the blame.

Again, as we said weeks ago, toss it out to the American public. Then
they own the decision with Barack and then there's no criticism -- since
it was a collective decision -- of Barack if we have something go
horribly wrong -- hostages, deaths, whatever.

Lastly, Senator Patty Murray is the former Chair of the Senate Veterans
Affairs Committee and the current Chair of the Senate Budget Committee.
Her office issued the following:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Murray Press Office

Monday, June 30, 2014 (202) 224-2834

Murray Statement on Nomination of Robert “Bob” McDonald as Secretary of Veterans Affairs

WASHINGTON,
D.C. – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), senior member of the
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, released the following statement after
President Obama nominated
Robert “Bob” McDonald to serve as the next Secretary of the Department
of Veterans Affairs.

“I
applaud President Obama for his selection of Bob McDonald to lead the
Department of Veterans Affairs at this most critical time.

“His
successful management and leadership track record, combined with his
commitment and service to our nation’s men and women in uniform, are
essential to address
both the immediate and long-term challenges at the VA.

“These
are challenges that will not be solved through legislation alone or by
simply replacing the Secretary. However, I am hopeful today’s
announcement will spark
long-overdue change from the top-down in order to ensure our veterans
are getting the care and support they expect and deserve.

“When
it comes to caring for our nation’s heroes, we cannot accept anything
less than excellence. As I work with my House and Senate colleagues on
the conference
committee to address some of the immediate accountability and
transparency concerns plaguing the VA, I look forward to hearing from
Mr. McDonald on how he plans to fix the Department’s deep-seated
structural and cultural challenges.

“We made a promise to our nation’s heroes who answered the call of duty and I am hopeful Mr. McDonald shares that commitment.”

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About Me

I'm Michael, Mike to my friends. College student working his way through. I'm also Irish-American and The New York Times can kiss my Irish ass. And check out Trina's Kitchen on my links, that's my mother's site.